Calcutta/New Delhi, April 1: Army vehicle depots have lodged complaints over the years about the serviceability and lack of spares for the Czech-origin Tatra trucks, which have been with the military since 1986.

These complaints contradict claims, such as those by Defence Research and Development Organisation chief V.K. Saraswat, that the vehicles are flawless.

The CBI, which today asked Vectra Group chairman Ravi Rishi not to leave the country, will be given the complaints from the army’s vehicle depots. The army chief has sent a written complaint to the CBI but the agency has asked him for more details.

Rishi and the UK-based Vectra Group are also being investigated in the Czech Republic following a complaint last year from an activist of corruption watchdog Transparency International that they had caused losses to Tatra.

Documents show that the Vectra Group, which has substantial stakes in Tatra a.s. in the Czech Republic and in Tatra Slovakia in Slovakia, tried to retain its near-monopoly over the supply of heavy vehicles to the Indian Army by practically bidding twice for the same contract.

When the army floated a tender in 2010 for field artillery tractors (FATs), public sector Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) and Vectra company Kamaz Vectra put in bids. In effect, Rishi would have raked in the profits whichever company won the order.

BEML is practically a canalising agency for Tatra, procuring the trucks in completely knocked-down condition and assembling them before supplying them to the army. BEML procures them from Tatra Sipox UK, also a Vectra Group company. Kamaz Vectra is a joint venture between Vectra and Russian firm Kamaz and has a plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

Among the other bidders were Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Man Force and the Calcutta-based Ural India.

“Two tenders were called by the army, one for 1239 6x6 HMVs and another for 100 6x6 field artillery tractors. We bid for the HMVs along with Tata Motors, Man Force and the Ordnance Factory. For the FATs, the bidders included Ashok Leyland, Tata, BEML and Vectra,” Ural India chairman J.K. Saraff said.

Each bidder had to send two HMVs and one FAT for trial at different locations in India on the army’s instructions.

Saraff’s company has been supplying spares for the Grad BM-21 rocket launchers that it procures from its Russian partner Uralaz. The Russian company would also supply support vehicles for T72 and T90 tanks to the army. These vehicles carry tooling, spares, artillery, ammunition and other military hardware.

The all-wheel, flexible-axle, all-terrain heavy vehicles that the army requires in tens of thousands are used by most countries with conventional armies.

Army sources say that for the Tatra vehicles supplied by BEML, the army ends up paying nearly twice or thrice the amount for which the trucks can be bought. They say BEML has even charged Rs 30,000 per tarpaulin sheet to cover the vehicles when the sheets are available for about Rs 6,000 in the open market.